2020 Was a Bad Year for CS:GO and Many Pros are Leaving

In 2020, more than 200 professional CS:GO players ended their careers. Journalist Richard Lewis explains what could be the reason for this.

IN A NUTSHELL:

In 2020, more than 200 professional CS:GO players ended their careers;
Esports journalist Richard Lewis pointed out some of the problems the scene is facing;
According to him, its current condition is due to scandals that are the result of how the online tournaments were ran;
He also pointed out that Valve will finally have to get down to work to keep CS at the top of the popularity list next year.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has broken popularity records this year. We've seen over a million user playing at the same time, and their average monthly number was the highest in the game's history. But that doesn't mean that everything around was equally successful. According to data collected by Reddit user ImThour, in 2020 more than 200 professional CS players ended their careers, which is a tragic result compared to previous years - in 2018 less than 50 players ended their careers, and in 2019 less than 25. The poor situation on the professional CS scene also seems to be confirmed by esports journalist Richard Lewis.

During the over 3-hour long streama, Lewis discussed many factors that had a huge impact on the current state of professional competition. In his opinion, apart from the problems faced by organizations such as CSPPA (Counter-Strike Professional Players Association) and ESIC (Esports Integrity Commission), it is important to pay attention to the behavior of the players and coaches themselves, who have experienced several scandals this year. Among the most famous scandals are match fixing, so-called stream sniping during the tournament and the use of bugs and exploits for unfair benefits. Unfortunately, all these things are a result of the current situation in the world - the games were held exclusively online, which made it extremely difficult to control teams.

According to Lewis, no one cares enough about young talents either, and many of the more experienced players decided to switch to a competitive game - Valorant. What's more, according to him, Riot's shooter may shuffle a lot next year, and if Valve doesn't take decisive action, it could end up badly for CS. Finally, the journalist pointed out that of course, the game popularity is huge nowadays, but maintaining it will be an incredible challenge next year. You can find his full statement here, and a text summary here.